I told you the boss battle would be up pretty soon, didn't I? Well, I honor my word and here it is. Also, this battle is a little long, so you might want to make yourself comfortable and bring some snacks.
Without further ado, here you go, Tails' own boss battle.
Frozen Wonderland – Act 3: Livyath of the Everlasting Blizzards
The inside of the marvelous coliseum was a battle arena made entirely of ice that seemed to stretch indefinitely. In front of Tails was a huge bridge crossing a river and leading to the round arena ahead.
In the middle of the ring, Tails, from where he was, could clearly see a figure cloaked in a blue robe, the same shade as the ice forming the entire place, standing forlornly.
Even though the fox couldn't see his face through the heavy cloak, he could certainly feel the icy and malicious glare of the individual directed at him, which sent chills up and down his spine. There was a lot of animosity emanating from the figure, and Tails himself knew exactly why.
Knowing that there was no turning back after making it this far, Tails swallowed the lump that had unknowingly formed in his throat and cautiously crossed the bridge before him and approached the lone deity of cyan. Once the fox had reached the other side of the bridge and entered the battle arena, the contraption behind him collapsed almost instantly, trapping Tails alone with the ruler of the frozen domain.
Tails gulped once again and came closer to the god while exercising extreme caution. Every battle against super-powered beings and gods Tails had taken part in was fought alongside Sonic and his allies. This was actually the first time Tails had ever taken on a deity in combat alone, without any help, so he couldn't help but feel very nervous. While walking, Tails fiddled with his gloves, hoping that the major modifications he had made to them would help him survive this treacherous battle.
Due to the size of the ring and the cautious pace at which Tails was treading, the fox took a good ten minutes to reach the deity's place and stopped just a few yards away from him. The cloaked individual, completely aware of Tails' arrival, simply stood still, watching Tails intently as he got closer.
After a brief moment of uncomfortable silence, the cloaked god, whose size was relatively small compared to the others and about the same size as his challenger, decided to break the ice.
"You've finally made it here, I see. Though I'm quite surprised you managed to avoid my traps, I'm glad. Now I can see to it that you perish by my hands personally."
Tails was clearly taken aback by the voice of the deity, the surprise evident on his face. Livyath didn't sound anything like the monstrosity that had frozen Southern Island at all. Instead, it was a voice belonging to a child, possibly ten or eleven years of age. Now that Tails was close enough, he was able to take a closer look at the enigmatic figure before him. It was then that Tails finally noticed the fact that that the deity was about his height.
'A child's voice?' thought Tails curiously as he kept his undivided attention on the strange opponent.
"You seem puzzled by my appearance," said the deity, who correctly read the surprised fox's mind based on his facial expression.
"You are called Livyath, right?" asked Tails cautiously, to which Livyath simply nodded his head ever so slightly, but said nothing in response. "You were the huge sea serpent that froze Southern Island, right?" again, another slow nod from the god.
"You seem to be missing a minor detail, Tails" Livyath said with much venom and malice when he pronounced the fox's name, causing him to flinch visibly.
"W-What is that?" asked Tails cautiously.
Without saying anything, Livyath grabbed his cloak and took it off, revealing himself fully to the mortal challenger.
Just like Tails had guessed, the uncloaked figure before him was indeed a child. He had pointy ears like those of an elf and long icy blue hair that reached down his shoulders. The deity also had one piercing navy blue eye, while his left eye was covered by an eye patch made of the same element as the entire domain. Also, the being was relatively small and he looked no older than eleven, but Tails knew better not to be fooled by his stature.
Livyath wore a long white robe with blue linings and icicle symbols on the back, matching blue buckles and a black belt around his waist to keep his attire in place. Over the robe, Livyath wore a small white poncho with similar blue linings, which was fastened in place by a small black clip. In addition, he also sported pure-white trousers under his robe and matching white shoes. Thanks to the colors of his attires, Livyath was almost blended in with the surroundings.
The pale-skinned god then touched his patched eye and frowned at Tails, shooting him with a deadly glare that froze the fox in place.
"Have you already forgotten what you did to me?"
"You attacked us," replied Tails, "I was just trying to protect my friends."
"You, a tiny and pitiful mortal, dared to defy me…that alone is a sin that I cannot and will not forget," growled Livyath angrily, his body emanating a freezing aura. Clearly, the god's temper and his element did not match.
"You're one to call somebody 'tiny'. You are about the same size as me."
"Some Lords of Pandemonium tend to take on humanoid forms to conceal their real powers, and I'm no exception. However, there are some of us who like to use their Mythical Beast forms without restraint."
"Mythical Beast forms? Humanoid forms?"
"You already saw mine, and yet you dared to attack me. I will pay you back tenfold what you did to me, brat. Since I'm under strict orders from Arzazel not to blow up this place, I'll destroy you in this form. Besides, what's the point of swallowing you whole in one move? I'll make your death as painful as possible, making you wish you had never been born." said Livyath as he began to laugh maniacally and glared at Tails with hate and disgust.
"Prepare to face the wrath of Livyath of the Everlasting Blizzards, you insolent brat."
With that, Livyath got into his fighting stance and got ready for his battle, his aura already forming huge ice blocks nearby. Likewise, Tails did the same and prepared himself physically and mentally for a fight to the death with a deity capable of freezing an island in an instant without even trying.
…
"Tell me, Tails," said Livyath with a playful yet malicious smirk on his childish face, "Have you checked the weather forecast today?"
"What kind of question is that?" asked Tails, not knowing what Livyath was referring to.
"I heard there's a blizzard coming soon," said Livyath as he raised his hand up, "And you are about to be caught in the middle of it."
The god then clicked his fingers. In an instant, an extremely strong blizzard occurred, much to Tails' surprise and absolute horror. The fox tried his best to stand his ground in the midst of the freezing whiteout, but it proved to be a tedious task.
"Time for some payback, mortal," Livyath said furiously before disappearing into the strong blizzard.
Tails tried to look around in the blinding snowstorm in an attempt to locate where his opponent had disappeared to, but he could see nothing but the snow and ice.
…
All of the sudden, Livyath emerged right behind Tails and summoned a broad sword out if ice and slashed his back. The fox, however, noticed the weapon and quickly stumbled forward, narrowly escaping in the nick of time. Despite his quick reflexes, Livyath's large sword still managed to graze Tails' back, causing the fox to wince slightly as he fell head-first on the ice.
A moment later, the blizzard stopped, and Livyath stood still with his sword still in hands. He smirked at Tails and said in a mocking and patronizing tone.
"You're faster than I thought, mortal. In the past, I would have already won the battle with that move just now. You're probably the first one to have ever survived it, bravo."
The deity then burst out laughing with the same childish voice for a while before turning back to Tails, who had already pushed himself up.
"No matter, that just means I can savor the moment for a little while longer," Livyath said quietly as he summoned numerous extremely large and sharp spinning snowflakes with his power.
The spinning snowflakes were then shot at Tails at an incredible speed, but the fox still managed to escape instant doom by impaling by quickly taking to the sky with his namesakes.
Using his superb acrobatic skills, Tails continued to dodge the rest of the deadly snowflakes and headed for Livyath himself. The elf-like deity, however, was unconcerned. If anything, the grin on his face only grew wider and more malicious as Tails closed in on him.
When the fox was within range, Livyath immediately raised his hands up and summoned countless icicles of varying sizes and shapes from the ground and sent all of them at his target, intending to land a surprise attack on the young flyer.
Tails, however, noticed something strange the moment the ice manipulator raised his hands and immediately halted, narrowly escaping the deity's ambush and preserving his life as a result.
'That was too close' thought Tails as he sighed in relief, for the fox was merely a little distance away from being stabbed by one of the sharp icicles Livyath had summoned.
Suddenly, cracks appeared on the huge icicles and a second later, they shattered into millions of smaller yet still sharp pieces on their own. The ice shards made Tails cover his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them again, Tails saw the grinning face of Livyath right in front of him, much to his terror.
"Got you now, mortal," said Livyath cruelly before he summoned a huge ice hammer twice his size and hit Tails with a mighty blow, sending the fox pummeling toward the ground with a loud thud. The force of the collision actually cracked the thick layer of ice that constituted the battle arena.
Not giving Tails the chance to get up, the falling Livyath froze the water in the air with his magic to create millions of sharp ice needles and shot them at his opponent on the ground.
Tails, despite still being dazed by the force of the deity's hammer, noticed the incoming projectiles and quickly pushed his body up once more.
The fox then spun his tails and ran in circles around the ring to avoid being stabbed by the deadly needles. While Tails managed to dodge most, he still suffered from minor cuts for he couldn't evade every single one of the rapidly incoming projectiles.
In one quick motion, Livyath, having landed safely on his feet, used his magic once more and made the needles that he had shot levitate and fuse into a giant ice dragon. Using his power once again, Livyath created a huge glacier behind him and jumped on top of it. The newly-created dragon then began to follow Livyath's manipulation and hunt down Tails and opened its gigantic jaw to crush him.
'Man, how many moves does this guy have anyway?' thought Tails begrudgingly as he continued to run for his life to avoid being bitten by the giant ice creature behind him.
After trying to elude the dragon for a while, Tails knew he couldn't shake off the ice creature, so he decided to stop running and tried to retaliate.
The fox immediately whipped around and waited for the dragon to approach him. Once it was close, Tails patiently waited for it to open its mouth.
"That's it, just a little closer," muttered Tails quietly as he watched the approaching dragon with watchful eyes.
Once the dragon was about to swallow Tails, he jumped back and simultaneously created a bomb with his gloves and threw it inside the creature's open jaws.
The bomb went off a few seconds later and blew up the animated creature instantly, reducing it to bits.
"Take that, monster," yelled Tails excitedly as his attack worked.
However, Tails was not in the clear just yet, for the real mastermind remained. Livyath, standing on top of his glacier, was not pleased with what he had just witnessed.
"You imbecilic brat of a mortal, you're only prolonging the inevitable."
Livyath then used his power once again to forge two scimitars and lunged at Tails. When he was within range to deliver attacks, the deity began to assault the fox with an endless series of slashes and thrusts, but Tails managed to evade every attack with credit to his lightning-quick reflexes.
…
Knowing that he couldn't continue being on the defensive forever, Tails began to formulate a plan to counterattack.
In an instant, he jumped back to distance himself from the charging god and threw a lot of explosives at the dual-wielding deity. Livyath, with his superb swordsmanship, quickly neutralized the threats by cutting off their fuses, rendering the explosives virtually useless.
"You can't defeat me by randomly throwing bombs at me, mortal," Livyath taunted as he continued to zoom in and slash Tails, "Without the fuses, those things are practically useless."
"Not if I can help it," said Tails confidently with a grin on his face while dodging his opponent's relentless attacks, which surprised Livyath a little, "Creating bombs isn't the only thing my gloves can do, Livyath."
With that, Tails leaped backward and evaded Livyath's horizontal slashes. In one swift motion, Tails lunged forward and threw a punch at the god's exposed chest. The ice deity held out his scimitars in front of him in a cross to block the incoming attack.
As soon as Tails' glove made contact with Livyath's weapons, it created an explosion that shattered the ice scimitars and forced the deity back a few feet, much to his surrise.
"What in the…" muttered Livyath before Tails cut him off.
"Thanks to my modifications, these gloves of mine can now create bombs and make explosions as well," said Tails as he threw another punch, this time aimed at the deity's stomach, and hit him directly, sending Livyath flying back a few feet.
The explosion caused the ice manipulator some pain as he winced when Tails' fist made contact. Quickly putting his hands on the ground and performing a flip back, Livyath managed to recover.
The deity looked up at Tails with hatred and murder intent clearly visible in his eyes after checking the burn on his stomach. Nobody had managed to hurt him in the past, so it came as a great shock to the god to have been injured by one single fox twice in one day, a fact that only fueled his anger even more.
"You insolent little…" muttered Livyath as he summoned an ice rapier and launched himself at Tails once again.
Tails quickly generated another bomb and threw it on the ground. The explosive exploded immediately upon impact and created a thick smoke screen that clouded the deity's sight. Regardless, Livyath performed a powerful thrust into the thick dark smoke where Tails had been standing a while ago, only to find that his target was no there.
Suddenly, he heard the familiar sound of Tails' spinning namesakes right above him and looked up. Tails was indeed flying right above Livyath, and he started to bombard the deity with another barrage of deadly explosives.
Just like before, Livyath easily neutralized Tails' incoming explosives by cutting off their fuses and summoned giant snowflakes and shot them at Tails, who quickly dodged by descending and ascending in quick succession.
"I told you, Tails. Randomly throwing bombs at me won't do you any good."
"And you seem to be forgetting a minor detail, Livyath," replied Tails with a huge grin on his muzzle.
Before Livyath could open his mouth to ask, Tails beat him to the punch.
"You may want to take a look around for a little bit."
Livyath did just that and saw that he was standing in the middle of an area littered with Tails' defused bombs. However, the sight of the situation didn't even make the god blink.
"So what? These things can't go off, I cut off their fuses."
"Yes, they would be useless if they were normal bombs," said Tails smugly as he held his right hand out, "But these are my inventions. Like I said, these gloves of mine can do more than just making bombs. They can make them, create explosion to augment my punches…and dictate when the bombs go off should something happen to their fuses."
As soon as he finished his last word, Tails snapped his fingers and in an instant, the maze of defused explosives simultaneously went off and trapped Livyath in the middle of the extremely wide blast radius, making the trapped Livyath cry out in pure agony as the flames burned into his flesh and injured him.
The chain of explosions continued for a few more minutes before it ceased. As a result, a huge portion of the battle arena, mainly where Livyath had been standing, was completely destroyed, and Livyath was nowhere to be found.
…
A few moments later, a haze occurred, much to Tails' surprise. He knew full well that nothing was natural in this place, and that this haze could only be Livyath's doing, so the fox stayed on guard and darted his eyes around in search for the pale-skinned immortal.
Out of the blue, the deity in question emerged from the cold air right behind Tails, much to the fox's horror. Livyath looked absolutely and utterly furious, most of his body was burned and he was charred very badly due Tails' clever and unexpected trap.
Before Tails could do anything, Livyath extended his arm and grabbed the fox's neck, squeezing it hard with all his might.
"I've had it with you, you little freak," yelled Livyath in a state of extreme agitation, "I will end your life right now for your insolence and devour your flesh afterwards."
Tails struggled valiantly to break free of the enraged immortal's hold, but no matter how much he did so, he couldn't manage the feat. Livyath grinned evilly when he watched Tails squirm in his hand and burst out laughing like a maniac.
"It ends here, fox," said Livyath as he summoned another ice rapier with his free hand and held it up, ready to thrust it into the fox's beating heart. "Time to meet your maker."
Tails looked at the rapier Livyath was holding and gasped in terror. He knew he needed to break free from the deity's grab, and he knew how to do just that, but that didn't mean he had to like what was about to transpire.
'Desperate time calls for desperate measure,' Tails thought.
Quickly, Tails let go of the deity's arm and summoned two explosives with both hands. He then shoved the two explosives together with a mighty force.
The collision of the bombs created a huge explosion that was twice as powerful as the normal one. The big explosion hurt both Tails and Livyath at the same time, burning their flesh and forcing the latter to let go of the former's neck in surprise.
…
Seizing his precious chance, Tails quickly flew away from Livyath and threw another bomb at the god. Due to his daze and the smoke created by the last explosion, the ice immortal didn't see the incoming explosive.
When Livyath did notice, it was already too late, for the bomb exploded right in his face, knocking him back and sending him flying toward the ground at a great speed.
"You insolent little freak," shouted Livyath at the top of his lung and glared at Tails after dusting himself off, "I'll make you pay for that."
Livyath's body began to glow with his frosty aura. He then jolted up and conjured huge ice boulders, razor-sharp snowflakes and a variety of ice swords, spears with his magic. The enraged god then threw all of his newly created weapons at Tails, who was still hovering in the air.
The flying fox began to descend and dodged the incoming deadly conjured objects with great difficulty. Many times, Tails almost got slashed by the snowflakes, spears and swords, but he managed to get out of the way just in the nick of time, escaping the projectiles with lots of cuts, some of which looked really nasty and deep.
'This guy is tenacious' thought Tails as he began to make a beeline for Livyath, who was still on the ground creating more stuff to throw at his target with his power. 'But I can use that to my advantage.'
…
After a while of dodging the ice weapons with various difficult maneuvers, Tails managed to get close to Livyath and delivered another explosive punch on the god's abdomen.
In his firing spree, Livyath wasn't able to react quickly enough against Tails' attack and got hit squarely, making him yell out in pain as the flames from the explosion once again burned his ice-cold flesh.
…
Not giving up just yet, Livyath growled loudly and summoned another powerful blizzard like he had at the beginning of the fight and disappeared into the snow. Tails, however, knew what the god would do for he had seen this technique before.
Tails twitched his ears around in an attempt to listen for any suspicious movements in the midst of the blinding snowstorm. A second later, the ice manipulator reemerged right behind Tails with a huge scythe in hand, ready to slash the fox in half.
Unbeknownst to the god, Tails had heard the sound of Livyath's arrival and swung one of his namesakes mightily at the handle of the immortal's weapon, snapping it in half. Using the other tail, Tails landed another hit on Livyath's chest, but the god saw that one coming and grabbed it.
"I'll freeze you to death, fox," shouted the god furiously as he began to freeze Tails' tail, much to the fox's horror.
In one quick motion, Tails materialized another bomb in his hand and threw it in the space between himself and his adverasry. As soon as Livyath saw the incoming explosive, he immediately let go of Tails' appendage and moved back, sparing himself another painful blast radius. Tails, on the other, was caught in the explosion and was sent flying back a few feet, hitting the frozen surface of the arena multiple times.
Tails, straining himself, wearily got to his feet and trained his eyes on Livyath, who had just summoned another elemental rapier with his power.
"Time to finish this, mortal. Say your prayers." Livyath then created and shot more icicles at Tails and charged at him at an incredible speed.
Tails watched the hot-headed immortal in front of him and managed a small smile.
"Alright, it's now or never…" muttered Tails as he threw a smoke bomb on the ground, creating a smoke screen to blind the deity.
…
Livyath, however, called forth an chilly wind and blew the smoke away. Once the smoke screen was no more, Livyath saw Tails standing still and swiftly performed a powerful and precise thrust aimed at Tails' heart.
"It's over, fox."
Much to the god's surprise, his rapier went through Tails' body.
"What kind of sorcery is this?" asked the bewildered Livyath as he stepped back, not understanding what trick his opponent had pulled.
A moment later, the figure of Tails that Livyath had stabbed began to fade away.
"A phantasm?" asked Livyath as he darted his eyes around the place, trying to look for the sight of golden fox. A second later, his eyes fell upon the sight of his target and once again, Livyath shot more icicles in that direction.
Like Livyath's thrust, the icicles went through the fox's body like thin air.
'What is going on here? Is that mortal fox capable of magic? No, it's impossible; I didn't sense anything magical from him. What exactly is happening here? Was that smoke screen capable of creating illusions?'
While lost in his own thought, Livyath didn't notice the approaching Tails, who had moved close to him at an incredible speed.
Unable to react quickly enough, the elf-like immortal was hit by a series of punches and tail swipes, all of which were augmented by explosives. After a few minutes of relentlessly assaulting the god, Tails jumped back and threw another bomb on the ground to create another thick smoke screen.
…
Not letting the kid get away, Livyath shot a huge shuriken-like snowflake at the smoke screen, but nothing happened.
Out of the corner of his eye, Livyath once again spotted Tails standing motionlessly. In one quick motion, the agitated god summoned sharp icicles from the ground and commanded them to impale the cub. However, like before, his attacks went through Tails' phantom-like body.
"Coward! I'm getting sick and tired of this trick!" yelled Livyath angrily before he summoned huge ice walls around his position, which began to close up to form a protective dome around the summoner.
Before the ice dome closed up completely, out of nowhere, Tails dropped down from the sky through the gap and came face to face with the bewildered deity inside.
"How…"
"I have my ways," replied Tails briefly before unleashing a powerful spin dash attack at Livyath. Using the dome the god had created, Tails aimed his attack at the precise angles so that he would always ricochet right at his target, causing Livyath excruciating pain with each hit.
When Tails was quite sure that his adversary couldn't keep on going anymore from all the damage he had sustained, the fox uncurled himself and clenched his fists tightly.
"This is the end, Livyath," shouted Tails loudly as he delivered an explosive knockout blow at the god's chest, sending him crashing into his ice wall and flying out of his ice dome at an unfathomable speed. In fact, Livyath was almost invisible after receiving Tails' attack.
The dome, having lost its builder, quickly crumbled after Livyath was out of the way.
'Thanks goodness I asked Knuckles to train me for a few months' Tails thought after he made his way out of the collapsing dome.
Tails, having exhausted his energy during the fight, dropped to his knees and panted shortly afterwards. He hoped that his last attack had managed to defeat Livyath, for he knew he was in no condition to fight any longer.
…
A few minutes later, Livyath wearily got to his feet and glared at Tails. He tried to summon another rapier, but his strength failed him in his current conditions and he fell to one knee, panting heavily.
"You…" muttered the god breathlessly as he kept his eye on his opponent, "What kind of witchcraft…did you use?"
"The kind that they call 'science'," replied Tails with an amused grin on his face; he couldn't help but laugh at the fact that a mighty god had associated his technique with magic, which he didn't and would never possess.
"What?"
"It's called 'afterimage'. I simply moved around at a speed so fast that I left an image of myself behind. I used the smoke to conceal my movements and created an afterimage before taking to the sky."
"So the last part about me summoning my ice dome was also part of your scheme, huh?" growled Livyath angrily, clearly pissed off that he, a god of immense power, had fallen for Tails' simple misdirection.
"Nah, that was an improvisation on my part," replied Tails with a slight shake of his head. Needless to say, Livyath was shocked speechless. That Tails was able to improvise in a matter of seconds was unthinkable. Despite not showing it, the deity was actually impressed with Tails' quick thinking and resourcefulness in battle, albeit begrudgingly.
Livyath wobbly stood up and glared at Tails one last time.
"By Arzazel's orders, I'm not allowed to go all out right now, so I'll leave you breathe for a while longer. You may have won this battle, mortal, but I'll be back. Next time, I'll show you what I'm truly capable of."
With that, Livyath created a portal behind him and teleported himself out of the frozen domain, leaving Tails alone in the middle of the badly damaged arena.
…
"I…I won?" said Tails quietly, clearly not believing that he had managed to defeat a powerful deity on his own.
"I WON! I WON!" yelled the kid excitedly before feeling a sharp pain coming from his back. Despite his victory, the battle had clearly done a number on him.
"I'll treat those wounds later," said Tails happily, "At least now I'll be able to prove to Sonic that I'm almost as strong as he is and capable of doing things on my own."
Out of the blue, a portal appeared in front of Tails and surprised him a little. Through that very portal, the fox could see the place from whence he had come.
Thus, without further ado, Tails stepped through the portal and got transported back to the Forbidden Island, barely able to contain his rising excitement from his showdown with the ice immortal.
…
Meanwhile, at another place…
A beaten and badly charred Livyath stepped into a dark room and sat down on a stone seat, holding his chest to suppress the pain. He was panting very heavily, having overexerted the limit of his current form in his battle with Tails.
"That brat…How dared he trick me? I'll get him next time."
"That is for next time, Livyath. For the moment, try not to cry over spilt milk," said the calm and suave voice of the leader of the seven deities from behind the fallen god. "Though, I must say I am quite impressed that you managed to contain your anger and not transform into your Mystical Beast form."
"Shut up, Arz! I don't have time for your stupid lectures right now," said Livyath angrily as he shot up from where he was sitting and glared at the newly-arrived Arzazel.
Before Arzazel could say anything back, Livyath brushed past him and left the room in haste, not wanting to listen to any more talk from his leader.
The grey-cloaked enigma stood alone in the darkness of the chamber looking intently at the door where Livyath had disappeared to. He simply shook his head ever so slightly before he himself faded into the shadows of the dark chamber.
Didn't expect the boss to be a midget, eh? I couldn't help myself. I want to save the dragon for later.
Also, for the battle scenes, the ideas just kept coming and coming, but I truly hope what I wrote here is as good as it was in my head. Please tell me what you think if you have time.
Also, before I forget, Character Select is now open, and "Espio is clearly ready to go, run down who'd do you wrong." Readers who have already selected their characters, please allow other people to make their picks. If no one nominates any character after two days, you can go again.
Thank you very much for reading and following my story. See you all next time.